


And Then She Remembered

by ZMistress



Category: Deponia (Video Games)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 16:44:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7230502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZMistress/pseuds/ZMistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What did actually happen between the end of "Deponia" and the start of "Chaos on Deponia"? Did Rufus manage to give Goal all the memories she needed?<br/>Here's my take on what happened after Goal and Cletus left Deponia in their small cable boat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Then She Remembered

Goal blinked against the sunlight that shone through the escape pod's small windows. Deponia had completed its turn far enough, so the Lower Ascension station and the cable boat attached to it were finally back in the sun's glow. Or maybe they already had been for a while. She wasn't sure how long she had been sleeping, exhausted as she had been.  
Careful not to make too much noise, she sat up and looked around. She still felt so very disoriented and the dreams that had haunted her sleep did nothing to alleviate that.  
Next to her Cletus was still fast asleep. He had drawn his flimsy blanket up to his chin and lay stiff as a wooden board. For a moment she felt tempted to nudge him awake but then she decided to use the time to sort out the chaos in her head.  
She had been rowing until well into the night before asking for a break. Cletus hadn't been too happy about that, eager as he was for returning to Elysium but he hadn't argued with her when she told him how tired she was.  
Well, if he'd known about the turmoil sleep left in her mind he probably would have tried to keep her from it.  
She had seen Deponia in her dreams. Glimpses of places, a big hall, some sort of medical bay, a cupboard in a shoddy house, mines in the junk... and more importantly flashes of people, Deponians. Especially one Deponian kept returning in each memory, a young man in a dirty, worn out coat and a rather silly pilot's cap.  
If only she could remember the name. She was sure it was something like Rudolf... Maybe Rupert?  
No matter. The much more important question was if those dreams were more than that, if they were actual memories. Because if they were, it changed everything. It would mean that there were still people living on Deponia, just as she had always believed.  
But what if they weren't real after all? Cletus had seemed fairly sure of Deponia being deserted when he'd awoken her before getting into the escape pod. And he couldn't have simply overlooked the Deponians. After all he had been awake throughout the whole trip while she had been... what? Uncounscious?  
Were this images just figments of her imagination because she had been dreaming of this adventure for so long? Of traveling Deponia and finding it inhabitated and exciting?  
This had been her first thought after waking up but the night had made her second guess herself once more.  
If she had really fallen from the Organon cruiser how had Cletus found her? How did she get to the Lower Ascension station? Why did the memories she had dreamed about fit that journey so well if they weren't real? And why did they end so abruptly and only start again with the moment Cletus had awoken her?  
She messaged her temples, careful not to trigger her brain implant's eject button, when she noticed her fiancé stirring. He needed a moment to react to her being up already but then he managed a smile that looked just a bit too forced to her.  
She decided to simply play along for the time being and put on a cheerful facade herself while he got a bite of breakfast from his traveling bag for them. He even had self heating plastic cups with travel coffee in there and though she found the coffee horrible, it wasn't the worst she'd ever had. No, that was…  
Finally one of these elusive memories came into her grasp!  
She did her best to sound casual when she asked: "So, Cletus, there seems to be a little gap in my memory. I just cannot remember what became of Rufus. I hope you rewarded him for all his help."  
She wasn't sure what was more satisfying. That he started choking on his bagel or that he dropped his hot coffee into his lap? It was a close call.  
At any rate, he'd given her the answer she had needed. It had been real and he had been trying to keep that knowledge from her. Had probably even tempered with her memory, if the gap in her short term memory was any indication.  
He had turned quite red from coughing but when she got up and rounded up on him he blanched again. He'd always had been quite a wimp but she'd never seen that as clearly as now.  
"Goal," he squeaked, trying to retreat and keep a bit more distance between the two of them but the escape pod was far to small for that. "I don't know what you are talking about, really."  
"Oh, spare me. You know perfectly well what you've done. Did you really think you'd manage to keep all of this a secret?"  
He probably wanted to say "yes" but thought better of it.  
"How dare you!" Goal's eyes narrowed dangerously, as she grabbed her shorter fiancé's collar. "You think I'd ever want to marry such a manipulative liar?"  
He seemed to shrink even further. "I... I'm sorry, Goal. I did it all for you, I promise."  
She snorted. "You lied to me and tried to erase my memory, so I wouldn't keep you from committing genocide, and I'm supposed to believe that you were trying to do me a favor?"  
"I only wanted... Goal, your father would have never allowed me to even ask for your hand if it hadn't been for this mission to Deponia. At first I thought that doing this inspection would provide me with enough money and status but he wanted more. He wanted me to keep silent about the Deponians and to keep it all from you or he'd never agree to our marriage."  
That brought her up short. Sadly, this really sounded like something her father would decide. And it would explain why he went from frowning on her dating Cletus to suggesting she'd do well to agree to his proposing to her.  
"And you think, I'd appreciate you becoming a murderer to be able to marry me?" she asked but most of her anger had dissipated and her tone had lost some of its edge.  
He didn't meet her eyes as he muttered: "If you want to call ending such a pathetic existence murder...”  
That earned him a slap. "You rotten, self-serving..."  
"So you don't want to go to Utopia?" he interrupted. "You are perfectly fine with Elysium falling back to the planet? You want to live down there in the trash?"  
"Well, no...", she stuttered. "But… but… I can't… we can't… I mean we can't just kill them all so we can have a better life."  
"But you don't mind Ulysses killing me? You know, he made it quite clear that he'll execute me if I don't go along with his plan."  
She was tempted to tell him that this was his own fault for getting involved in this awful plan in the first place but something in his eyes kept her from saying that. For in this moment his whole bored facade was shattered and reminded her of the young man, barely more than a teen, he had been when they had first met on one of her father's receptions. And of the hurt and helpless anger in his face when someone had mistaken him for a clone servant. "I don't want anyone killed. I want us to find a solution that benefits everyone."  
He frowned. "That's awfully naive and you know it. But if you can find a way to keep your father off my back, I promise you I'll tell the Council of Elders the truth and let them sort out this mess."  
She kept her eyes on him, searching for any hint of further betrayal, and this time he didn't turn away. He had regained some of his composure but his expression didn't show the usual air of indifference yet. He managed a shaky smile and reached up to her hand still holding on to his collar. "Once we are back in Elysium we can talk it all out. I'll invite you to a soyociono… I mean to dinner at Kendra's."  
How typical. He always solved problems by throwing money at it. Although she had to admit now that he had mentioned it, she couldn't stop thinking about how nice it was at Kendra's, with all the fountains and the lovely view at the White City's sky towers.  
With a sigh she let go of him. "Alright, alright. But if I ever catch you doing something like this again, you can go back down to the planet. The fast way."  
She had been half joking but he sure looked scared enough to never try and cross her again, so she didn't see any need to alleviate his fears. Backing away slowly he moved over to his travel bag and pulled out another of his white suits. He sniffed it gingerly and made a face but after another look at the coffee stains on his pants he apparently decided that the embarrassment of having a big brown spot on his lap was worse than the disgust over whatever he had smelled. She watched him change and raised her eyebrows when she noticed how torn his underwear looked. He'd really have quite a lot to explain once they were home.  
Smiling she sat down on the elevated seat overlooking the rowing station. She idly wondered what the cable boat's engineer had been thinking when they had come up with this design or whose idea it was to install oars to move the winch moving the boat. Probably some sadist, considering how much strain these had put on her arms.  
By then Cletus had finished changing and noticed where she had settled. She could see the realization of what she had decided dawn on his face and his features fell. "Come on, Goal. You cannot expect me to do the rowing. You know how much my back is troubling me."  
"Oh, and I thought you were really eager to get back to Elysium. My bad. Then let's stay a bit longer, why don't we?"  
"Goal, please!", he moaned.  
She kept smiling until he finally surrendered to his fate and flopped down between the oars. He grumbled under his breath as he went to work but after a while he grew quiet and focused his efforts on getting the cable boat to move.  
Hours passed. They got along much slower than when she had manned the oars and with a lot more whining and breaks but she wasn't about to give in and take over again.  
She spent most of her time trying to sort through the fragmented memories in her mind and didn't pay much attention to her surroundings. That's why she never heard anything coming until a huge sawblade ripped through the cable boat's bulkheads. From the corner of her eyes she saw Cletus dive to take cover, then something hit her temple and her memories turned dark.


End file.
